The Portland International Film Festival opened yesterday and will be running through February 23rd. There are far too many gems for us to cite them here, but in case you're unfamiliar with PIFF: "Drawing an audience of over 35,000, the Portland International Film Festival (PIFF) is the biggest film event in Oregon, premiering more than 100 international shorts and feature films to Portland audiences." I'm always personally fond of the film shorts, the first set of which screens this Saturday at 1PM in the Whitsell auditorium. I'm also interested in seeing the documentary filmed in North Korea, Comrade Kim Goes Flying: it looks as though it will prove to be a corny underdog story laden with the cheery undertones of propaganda films. There is so much more to see over the next couple weeks and you can find the full listings on their website.

This weekend down in Springfield, an exciting new show exploring new geographies and mapping techniques is opening with the works of three out of state artists. The work in the show, from what I can tell without having yet witnessed it myself, seems both playful and cleanly stark. The works "investigate the materiality of the landscape, the complexity of perceptual experience, and the relationship between our physical and mental experiences of place. Lamson's video A Line Describing The Sun tracks the path of the sun during a one day performance in the Mojave Desert while Mann's photographs of imagined landscapes speak of the desire to run away into the unknown. Gitelson's The Last Snow In Brattleboro tracks the last snow to melt in his hometown in order to convince himself of Spring's arrival."

Through the work of Emily Nachison, you can tell she is manifesting a sensitive relationship to material. The objects she produces seem to at once contain an inner vibrancy and repel the viewer. She has a new sculptural installation opening this "Each scale will balance a set of cast glass sculptural pieces that share the same weight and volume. The glass pieces will shape shift from one form to the next, illustrating natural cycles of growth and decay, while retaining the same volumetric proportion." This seems well worth the short trek or easy Max ride over to Disjecta on a Saturday.

There's going to be a panel discussion taking place at the White Gallery this Saturday surrounding the themes arising from a two-month long exhibition challenging privilege. The show is in two parts, so if you haven't made it to see the second iteration, this is your chance. There's a confoundingly simple work on view by emerging artist Portia Roy that will leave a mark on your memory. "Anger, amusement, hope, confusion, shame, envy, and maybe even pride play a role when we are able to take advantage in ways not always available to everyone equally. A thorough examination of how we personally benefit when we step into narratives of privilege is necessary if we want to create new scripts in how we navigate racially."